Character Counts

We were so very proud of Maddi when we got a letter from the Village of Oswego stating that she had been nominated and selected to recieve an award for demonstrating the Character Counts pillar of caring. The school social worker had nominated her and in her letter said that she was a good friend and was mature for her age in handling matters with friends and would always do the right thing, even if it meant losing a friend. Maddi truely has a gift of caring for others. She is so selfless and has a very tender heart. She is a beautiful little girl on the inside and out.

Grammy decided since she is retired she wanted to be here when Maddi received her award. That was such a nice thing for Grammy to do. It's hard being away from family and although Brett and I are always at their school and extracurricular events, it's hard not having other family around to support them as well. Grammy missed her flight but ended up getting here in time to make the awards. Cade had a baseball game so Brett and Emma went to the game. Grammy, Maddi and I went to a nice dinner at Olive Garden and then went to the Village Hall for the awards.

It was a special evening and I know Maddi was very excited to be honored with the award.

Here she is walking up to get her award.

They read the nomination letter for everyone to hear. I love the mens faces in the background as they are listening to what an awesome and caring little girl Maddi is!

The Character Counts Coalition President is actually the music teacher at the kids school. She was the one who read the letter about Maddi and Maddi is hugging her.

And now a handshake with the Village President. I have no idea why but most of the towns in Illinois are called villages and don't have mayors, but have a President.

These were all the people who received awards. A few of the kids received their award as a pair. One of the pairs got their award for playing with handicapped children at recess. The letter could have been about Maddi as she does the exact same thing with a boy in her grade. We got a letter from the boys mom asking if Maddi would still like to get together with him over the summer because he enjoyed his time with her. We got together with Jarid and his family two days after the awards and it brought tears to my eyes to see how Jarid's face lit up when he looked at Maddi. He has cerebal palsy and is in a wheel chair but can walk some too. Cognitively, he is all there, but he can't speak. Maddi has learned sign language to be able to talk with him. As his mom said, he is a normal boy trapped in his body that doesn't work. It was so awesome that Janet was with us when we met Jarid at the park because she was able to share stories with Jarid's mom with her experiences with a child with cp.

Emma and T.J. were in Maddi's class this year and they received an award for showing the pillar of Citizenship because they helped out in a first grade class working with kids and helping the teacher during their study hall.

Mrs. Klick nominated Emma and T.J. and was there to watch them get their awards. She was very happy to get to see Maddi get her award as well.

After awards, we met up with the rest of our crew at Culvers for some ice cream. Cade played Jack Ford's team in the baseball game that night and they joined us at Culver's too. It was a great night and although Maddi doesn't act the way she does so she can get recognition, it was nice for her to get recognized.

Sad and Happy

Monday, June 4th was a happy and sad day. It was the last day of school. It was also Maddi's last day at Elementary School. I honestly can't believe she is moving on to junior high. I remember it like it was yesterday that she was going to kindergarden. We moved from Texas half way through kinder so she's been at the same school for all but one sememster. I think we know pretty much everyone at the school and everyone that Maddi has had for a teacher has been so good to her. I know that she has touched many of the teachers she has had too with her sweetness and willingness to keep working hard. Cade will have his last year at elementary next year and then we won't have anyone in elementary until Miss Emalyn enters school. That makes me feel old...

These 3 kiddos have all gotten so big and grown up. I am so proud to be their mom.


Maddi girl on the last day of fifth grade. She was very happy but also a little sad and worried about the unknown of junior high school. When they were cleaning out their desks, Maddi had a ridiculous amount of stuff (junk). She had two big shopping bags full. They were too full and ripped open. The teacher gave her other bags and apparently as she was walking down the hall, those bags ripped too. I'm afraid we might see Maddi on the next episode of hoarding. Ha! I made her go through the stuff with me so she could see what she should have tossed during the year. Organized is not a word that describes Miss Maddi.

Emma wanted her picture taken too, she wants to do whatever Bubba and Sissy do. She will go to preschool 3 days/week in the fall and I think she is going to really like it. She is getting so smart and grown up and having real conversations with us. So many things about her remind us of Cade (schedules, sleep, puzzles, legos) and so many things remind us of Maddi (sensitive, shy, nurturing to baby dolls) and so many things are just Emalyn (stubborn, sassy).

I love seeing the relationships between the kids. Maddi and Emma adore each other and Maddi is like a second mom to her. Cade and Emma also adore each other and Cade treats her like a princess, he'll do whatever she wants. Maddi and Cade are not always sweet to each other, but at the end of the day, I know that they each love each other so incredibly much and would do anything for each other.

I had to post one of these pictures of the birds on the bball goal because Brett took as many or more pictures of the birds as he did of the kids. Silly Brett.
Overall, it was a great school year, and it flew by. I think it was the fastest school year, but maybe they all seem that way at the end of it. Cade had an awesome teacher, the same one he had in fourth grade and he continued to excel in all areas. He had straight A pluses the entire year, even in 5th grade math. He is a model student, we hear it from every teacher that has ever had him. I am thankful that school is so easy for him.
Maddi had a good classroom teacher and wonderful math teacher and reading teachers. The math and reading resource teachers both really seem to love their students and I know that they really enjoyed having Maddi in class. She is also a great student and works incredibly hard. She had all A's and B's all year and we are so proud of her efforts. I have to say I learned a lot this year as Maddi had to memorize the states, capitals and state codes of the US. She never dreamed she would be able to memorize them all and she did so awesome! I was so proud.
I know Maddi and Cade are both ready for summer and I'm thankful I get to spend the summer with them.

Quick Fun with Omie and Al

Omie and Al took an Eastern Eurpean vacation. On their flight home, they had a long layover in Chicago, so we got to spend some time with them. Thank you, Al, for booking the layover so we could see y'all! Luckily, their plane arrived a little early, so we were able to see some of Cade's baseball game. I should add this was their teams first victory of the season, so that was exciting. Some very happy fans at Cade's game. I took several pictures and in each one somebody had a goofy look to them and this was the best one, even though Emma looks psycho.

Al with Emma. Al is so sweet with the kids.

After lunch, we made our way to Uncle Julio's for a delicious lunch. I have to add this to remember that on the way to eat I had my mom jump out of the car at a stoplight to run some almonds to Cade in Brett's car. Cade was complaining that he was starving, so Omie saved the day. It was like a Chinese Fire Drill, just like we used to do when we were young :)

Emma with crazy eyes in the picture above, now Maddi with a silly face.

I love these people!

So sweet...After lunch, we were going to try to go to the Willis Tower to the Skydeck, but we realized I forgot to bring Cade's tennis shoes. We went over to Dick's to buy him some new shoes and it took so long for him to choose that we didn't know if we had enough time to go there. We decided to go play putt putt golf. It ended up being a better choice than the skydeck and we all had fun playing golf.

Our crew, minus Brett.

Miss Em didn't want to play golf, but she had a great time hanging out doing her thing.

After golf, we made a stop to Oberweiss for ice cream. Yum!

Then it was time to say our goodbyes. Omie and Al had to catch their plane back to Texas :(

I wanted to show the new shoes Cade chose. Bright orange. Lovely!

Hugs all around!

We had a great day with Omie and Al and are so glad we got to see them, even if just for a few hours.

After we took Omie and Al back to the airport, I took Maddi to a graduation party for Patience. Maddi looks up to Patience as a dancer and Patience has been very sweet to Maddi. There are 6 girls graduating this year, and Maddi is going to miss them so much.

Buns and Baseball

Maddi now has to wear a bun for ballet class along with a leotard and tights. They've always been able to wear any other dance clothes and hair how they want. On Maddi's first day, Emma noticed the difference in Maddi clothes and hair and wanted her hair just like Sissy's, in a bun. She totally looks up to big sissy. So sweet.

Here is Maddi with her junior girls at ballet. It's nice to see them looking so ballet-ish in their tights and leotard.
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This weekend was one of our usual crazy weekends filled with lots of fun. Cade had a baseball game Saturday morning but left early for the Chevy Youth Sports baseball clinic at Wrigley Field. It was quite the adventure getting to Wrigley. We thought we had plenty of time so we stopped for cash, then went home to get Cade his shirt with his name on it, then Emma had to stop to go potty, then Cade had to stop to go potty (in the hood, I might add), and then we were in crazy traffic. We finally made it to Wrigley...late, but we made it. It was a gorgeous day.

Cade missed one or two rotations because he was late. Here he is in his first group. He's the tall one in the orange shirt.

His turn to bat.

There were several helicopters flying by and later we found out it was President Obama. He had come home to Chicago for the weekend.

My big boy, Cadester, listening intently.

Pitching time.

Another station...

Cade's face made me laugh, he's running fast!

Moving on to something else. Cade's friend, Ethan, was in his group with him.

Hanging out in the dugout. Such a great experience and memories for these kids.

Kendall, Maddi and Emma being supportive sisters in the stands.

Fielding with the ivy wall in the background. They ended the clinic early because they had some college kids trying out for the Cubs. Not sure if they were for a practice team or just for scouts to see, but we stayed to watch them for a while as we ate our free hot dog lunch. It was cool to see them play, especially when they were throwing the ball in from right field to home plate. We really want to see batting practice, but we were kicked out before that because they didn't want to risk one of the kids getting hit by a foul ball.

After the clinic, we made our way across the street to McDonald's for some ice cream. A few funny things...Emma said she didn't want ice cream because she doesn't like ice cream, just cheeseburgers, so she had a cheeseburger. I'm pretty sure she's not my child. There was a Breast Cancer walk down by Wrigley Field so there were several vans driving around with bras on them. One of them had a blowhorn and they were saying "save the boobies" and another one had "need a lift" written on the windows. The kids thought it was very entertaining. There was also a walk of some sort with people wearing mustaches. It was very odd seeing girls, boys, men and women wearing mustaches. A visit to Chicago is always an eye opening experience :)

3 happy little kiddos!

2 happy little parents!

3 tired little kids, only 2 pictured :)